Egyptian Western Desert in the Roman Period. Al-Hayz - Bahariya. The Survey of Development of the Landscape and its Settlement
Abstract
Study presents results of longitudinal archaeological prospection in the segment of oasis Bahariya named Al-Hayz, that would be further carried out by Czech Institute of Egyptology and Institute for Classical Archeology, of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, in collaboration with University of Jan Evangesista Purkyně, Ústí nad Labem, Institute of archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v. v. i. and National Heritage Institute. Expected delineation of Roman period and middle age Egypt history with regard to history of the Western desert is accompanied by exhaustive list of archaeological localities.
These were collected thanks to remote or surface explorations and partial terrain excavations either for the first time exhaustively documented or discovered. List of localities as well as collected heap of documented material culture enables us to present basic development of oasis settlement in the Roman and Middle age period.
In the Roman period dating back since 3rd century AD there is evidence for massive inhabitation of oasis, building of intricated underground technicist constructions, gathering and dispatching water along the dessert margin and also upheaval of agricultural as well as non-agricultural industries. In the area of oasis we glance over settlement of the city type, including adjacent fields and its infrastructure, water industry, necropolises etc.
We oversee remnants of village type of settlement and material culture indicating intensive connections with other areas of Roman Empire, especially with Tripolitan region and Northern Mediterranean. On the whole we can guess there were living tens of thousands of people there.
Regression of inhabitation happens since 5th century AD.